GOVT TO COMPLETE FIRST PHASE OF SOCIAL ASSISTANCE DISTRIBUTION

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 27 (Antara) - The government that is committed to providing social assistance to at least 15 million underprivileged families this year has targeted to complete the first phase of distribution of the assistance scheme in February 2018.          In a bid to boost the prosperity of Indonesia's underprivileged families, the government has been implementing various schemes of social affairs assistance that it will distribute in four stages.          "We have set February 2018 as the deadline for completing the distribution of the first phase of the assistance," Social Affairs Minister Idrus Marham noted while delivering the assistance in North Sumatra on Friday (Feb 23).          According to the minister, the government has also vowed to ensure that the assistance will reach the intended beneficiary families (KPM). He made this statement while handing over the same assistance in Cirebon, West Java, on Monday (Feb 25).          He said the government will ensure that all social assistance schemes, such as the Family Hope Program (PKH), Cashless Food Assistance (BPNT), and Rice Social Assistance (Rastra), reach the right KPM.          "I am assigned by the president to check directly whether the aid reaches the intended recipients (KPM). It should not happen that the eligible beneficiaries did not receive the assistance," Marham noted during the distribution of PKH and BPNT social assistance schemes in Cirebon District on Monday.